Tony Watson Loses Arbitration Case to Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates and closer Tony Watson had a hearing on Wednesday in front of a three member panel of arbitrators to decide his 2017 salary. Watson was asking for $6 M for this season, while the Pirates offered him $5.6 M. According to Jon Heyman, the Pirates won their case. The Pirates are one of numerous file-and-trial teams, which means they stop negotiating once the player has filed for arbitration. They settled with the other five arbitration-eligible players before the deadline to file on January 13th, leaving Watson as the lone player to go to a hearing for the Pirates.